Devotions

I am reminded of a time years ago when I was driving my middle son home from a hockey game. He had a couple of very hungry hockey players with him, so we stopped at McDonald’s. Standing in line behind them, I watched as the boys proceeded to take out the little bit of money they had. Suddenly I saw my son turn to his two friends and exclaim, “Put your money away, guys. My dad will pay!”

Now in those days, I was a pastor in a small country town and hardly made enough to pay the electricity bill of our house. I watched as the boys placed their orders — it was all “double-double, super-size me!” Yet I didn’t care if I had to dig into my gasoline fund for the next week — there was no way in my heart that I would embarrass my son.

The Scripture tells us, “If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him?” (see Luke 11:13).

You and I must be willing to boast of our Father’s generosity, just as my son did. But in order to boast of it, we have to know and experience it personally. We must not only open our hearts to Him, but we must also be willing to walk with Him.

The Father’s generosity is not given to those who choose to sit on the couch watching television all day. You must get up and walk with Him, and when you do, the floodgate of heaven opens and all the resources that Christ won for us suddenly become available.  

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. 

“[Abraham] did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully convinced that what He had promised  He was also able to perform” (Romans 4:20–21, my italics). By his faith, Abraham “gave glory to God.” And like Abraham, we give glory to God when we fully embrace His every promise.

When all of life is going well, it is easy for us to testify, “God can do anything!” We can effortlessly assure others that God will answer their prayers and confidently declare that the Lord always keeps His Word. But when everything around us seems to conspire against God’s promises being fulfilled — when all physical evidence seems more like God’s wrath than His reward — the Holy Spirit rises up in us with true words of comfort: “Hold on. Trust Him! You are not separated from God’s love. He is at work in your situation, so don’t waver. Instead, rise up and fight the good fight of faith.”

I leave you with this powerful passage from the apostle Paul. He reminds us of God’s unending faithfulness in every circumstance, at every moment of our trial:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35–39).

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

We all desire to claim God’s promises, not only for our comfort and blessing but so that we may please Him. We want a faith that brings glory to Him, yet there are times many of us struggle to grasp such a faith.

We often become troubled when our prayers aren’t answered and start to question our faith, wondering, “Is my trust in the Lord too weak? Am I slow to believe? Why do the heavens seem closed to my prayers? Have I wavered somehow? Am I not fervent enough? Is there an evil root of unbelief lodged somewhere in my heart?”

We are trying so hard to believe, struggling so hard to please the Lord with a proper kind of faith, that we thwart our own faith with judgment. Now, after many decades of service to God, I want to tell you what proper faith has become to me:

• It means holding fast to God’s promises when there is no physical evidence that His promises are being fulfilled.
• It means trusting the Holy Spirit to keep my soul at rest, convinced God is working out all things for my good.
• It means resting in this declaration from Paul: “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

In every age, God stationed intercessors on the very front lines to do battle against Satan’s principalities and powers. Today these spiritual soldiers can be found in every nation — and there is a reason they are called “prayer warriors.” Many who write to our ministry describe the intense spiritual warfare in their own lives.

A 91-year-old intercessor wrote the following: “I feel burned out, having served [the Lord for so long] with everything coming at me. I’m weak in body after years of suffering but I still have all the cares and trials of others constantly before me. . . Since I was four years old, I have loved and prayed for others. I’ve been an intercessor all these years. I take back the ground Satan tries to take from me by praying in the Spirit and I receive new strength.”

For an entire lifetime, this saint has taken seriously Jude’s exhortation: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 20–21). The message to those in spiritual battle is clear: “Build yourself up in faith. Keep yourself in God’s love.” Note that Jude qualifies his words with an admonition to pray in the Holy Spirit.

It is utterly impossible to build ourselves up in faith through human strength or ability. Without the Holy Spirit, we are not able to keep ourselves in the knowledge and assurance of God’s love for us. We are absolutely no match for the powers of darkness! We cannot even take up the shield of faith to quench hell’s fiery darts by simply setting our minds to do so. We need God’s Spirit to empower us in all things.

“I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12, my italics). These are the words of a dying man. The apostle Paul was addressing his pupil, the young minister-in-training, Timothy. Later in the same letter, Paul confides to Timothy these difficult words: “I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (4:6-7).

Although Paul directed these words to Timothy, his message speaks to every servant of Christ who is facing a great affliction. Consider the context: At the height of his own excruciating trials — at the very point of death — Paul was fully persuaded of God’s love for him. Moreover, he was convinced of the Lord’s ability to “keep what I have committed to Him” in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

Beloved, Paul’s counsel here is meant for all who are buffeted daily by satanic forces, engaged in fierce spiritual warfare, enduring great hardships as good soldiers. How was Paul able to speak so confidently of God’s faithfulness through his every trial? What exactly was he persuaded of about the Lord that gave birth to such faith?

Paul never does spell out the things he had “committed to [God] until that Day.” We can only speculate as to what those things were. Yet, like Paul, we too must be fully persuaded of God’s faithfulness to keep those things we have committed to Him. Indeed, to face our trials in these trying days, we must be fully persuaded that Jesus is our Lord and our Savior.